How to convert string to Date in apex?

Question

What is wrong with this format while am upserting the date in an object?

    Route__c r =new Route_c();
    r.Plan_Date__c = date.parse(strDate);
    upsert r;

In the debug log, I get the error as |FATAL_ERROR|System.TypeException: Invalid date: Test123

Here Test123 is the different text to be inserted which accepts as Date and throws an error.

Answer 1

This error is coming as system is not able to understand Test123 while parsing into date.

The format of the String depends on the local date format, like mm/dd/yyyy. If the parameter is not of this format, date.parse will throw an error.

E.g.:

r.Plan_Date__c = date.parse('12/27/2015');

You can also use date.valueOf(strDate) to parse string of format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss in the local time zone.

Please read about more date properties.

Answer 2

In case this is helpful to anyone, here is the Apex code to convert a string containing a date into an instance of the standard Date class (without going through the Datetime class or doing anything else funny). Note: It's important that the string be in YYYY-MM-DD format.

Date x = Date.valueOf('2015-12-31');

You can read more about the Date class here: Date Class | Apex Developer Guide.